You start with 3 enemies per player in the staging area. We played a 3-player with just the standard core decks. It's a 4-stage and we never got past stage 2. I asked for a difficulty rating from the FFG staff and he gave it a 9. Definitely harder than Escape from Dol Guldur. We never even got to the Witch-King, who is separated from the main deck and enters play in Stage 4.

The Witch-King

Engagement: 40
Threat: 6
Attack: 6
Defense: 6
HitPoints: 11

Nazgul. Captain.

Players cannot play attachments on The Witch-King.

While The Witch-King is in the staging area, each character gets -1 Willpower.

Forced: After The Witch-King attacks, he returns to the staging area unless the defending player raises his threat by 3.

Rough.

What do you walk away with (other than a bruised ego)? Is it too much to hope for any player cards, or is it just the scenario and encounter cards? How many encounter cards?

Nice! I must have this!

sounds awesome! can't wait to order it POD!

thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing, as that sounds awesome. I can't wait to order mine in a month!

How strong were the enemies that you started off engaged with?

Edit: How many cards in the MaO set? (encounters + quests, etc)

Any pictures someone please ?

Everyone at the event got a free copy of the encounter deck/quest cards.

As it's PoD and different cardstock, it doesn't use any cards from the base game or adventure packs, only the cards it comes with.

The three enemies you start with are pretty rough. My copy's packed away at the moment, but off of memory one has only 1 attack, 0 defense, and 2 health, but all copies of him engage the player with the lowest threat at the start of the encounter step. Which is nasty with core decks, as the lowest threat is the spirit player (which is the deck with almost no combat ability). The second card has 3 attack, don't remember health/armor, but if he kills someone he gets shuffled back into the encounter deck. The last card, the only bit I remember about him is that when he deals damage to one of your characters, you increase your threat by that much as well (I'm pretty sure that's what he does, at least; can't remember for sure). Total of 16 threat in the staging area with 4 players at setup. There's also a card that increases the threat by 1 for each Scout enemy in the staging area (all the starting enemies are Scouts), which is how my group got a turn-1 loss (two of those cards in a row meant even the Spirit player hit 50 threat).

There is one good thing, one of the cards in the encounter deck is an ally. If he shows up as the normal encounter card, he goes to the first player, but gains Surge so you draw another card. If he's a shadow card, he does 2 damage to the enemy and the defender can exhaust a character to keep him as an ally. Despite the boost, the quest is incredibly hard, and you'll need either good constructed decks or ungodly lucky draws to beat it.

I think we need a new event card:

Title: "No man can kill me"
Cost: 3 (Spirit)
"exhaust Eowyn and 1 Hobbit character to deal 11 points of damage to 1 Nazgul enemy"

I played the event twice, and both time we lost. Granted we were playing with the core decks straight out of the box, so I would expect some customization could help. Also, this scenario is more difficult the more players you have.

The first time we played, our threat jumped to 42 on round 1. We were able to make it to the 4th stage, but everyone got threated out of the game. Even with a lower threat, we probably would have lost against the Witch King (brutal enemy). We were plowing through the first 3 stages, and didn't take the time to build up many allies.

The second game wasn't much better. We took a little more time to build up, were able to keep our threat lower, but started losing heroes to undefended attacks. We still made it to the 4th stage, but lost again.

A nice new mechanic FFG introduced is Ally cards built into the encounter deck. The Allies in the Massing of Osgiliath are Rangers of Ithilien. When they are revealed as either an encounter draw or as a shadow card, they come over to aid you. When they come out as an encounter draw, they go to the first player exhausted and commited to the quest (2 Will). When they are revealed as a shadow card, they deal 2 damage to the attacking enemy, and the defending player may exhaust a character to take control of the Ranger. If you don't have a character to exhaust, they get discarded back to the encounter deck.

The scenario is very good, but very tough. I'm looking forward to some more plays with 2 players.

Thanks,

Don

Ismar said:

those allies sound awesome! thanks for the info!

On the other hand: one of the treachery cards allegedly reads: "All players discard all ally cards from their hands" therefore its only fair that you get one ally from the encounter deck

Ismar said:

Awesome!

I played it twice as well, Thursday night with the core deck, four players, each of us obviously using a different sphere. It was brutal but we did manage to beat it! At the time the GM stated we were the only ones to beat it and nobody had even gotten close at that point. We played again Saturday night with 3 players and we brought our own decks this time and again brought "the massing" to its knees! The GM there at the time has said a couple of teams with custom decks had managed to defeat it. It is the toughest quest so far, the initial surge is brutal, and you are playing purely with a survival strategy for the first couple of rounds.

Greg M said:

Are you they guy who got the uncut sheet of LotR cards? I was playing on the table next to you when you got it.

mason240 said:

Yes, it's already at the framer. Big score and that guy was so nice that he just gave that piece away, I went looking for him after we finished to thank him but I never found him.

How did you guys end up doing against the quest?

I download the cards images print them put in the sleeves and play 3 or 4 solo game. I lose all of them. The last i manage to get on the last stage but was defeated. So what can i say???? Solo is impossible i think. For 2 players i think is really good challenge with 50 cards expert decks. At last!!!! the game start to be cool!!!!! I like it. Still dont try the Carrock but heard is difficult too!!! Im happy!!!

Glaurung said:

I win 2 games solo form 10 or 12 sessions. Just have good draw and luck. Even manage to kill Witch-king. Really cool quest.

Glad to hear you find it an enjoyable challenge, Glaurung. I wouldn't get your hopes to high for a difficult battle against Conflict at the Carrock.I have tried it twice, once three player and once four player. The quest was fun, but ddidn't seem praticularly difficult. One of my friends remarked that he found it far easier than Hunt for Gollum (in three games against HfG, he never got a northern Tracker out). Still, the greater range of scenarios should mean that there is something for everyone.

Bohemond said:

Yes i like this quest. First if you play 2 players you need to play with expert 50 cards deck. Forget about starter deck is not possible. So now we have the point to build up the expert decks not only in solo game. Second is the first quest which is broken he cocept :beginning is hard the end is easy. Each stage more and more difficult and the last one is hell.

Yes sure Carrock is more easy but still difficult 6. So game start to be more and more interesting. Now i cannot wait for the tournaments system!!!

Greg M said:

I don't think that guy who gave you the sheet was nice so much as pissed. In the Warhammer forums, he says how he won it as runner-up in World's and was so mad that he just gave it to a guy who picked the right number. He felt, perhaps rightly, that a Warhammer tournament should have Warhammer prizes.

Mestrahd said:

Ahh, right place at the right time I guess. I suppose I would have been a bit upset as well. As a runner-up in the "Worlds" you would have thought he would have received more than just an uncut sheet of LOTR cards.

I'm really hoping a blog post is coming for when "Massing" is available for order. Definitely picking it up.